#6 Learning Steps to Budget for Your Medical Practice [Practice Management VideoCast]
In this episode, Chip and I have our first guest. Paul Vanchiere was kind enough to sit down with us to talk about budgeting.
Why budgeting? Well, I suspect that this is an area where many practice don’t excel. If you are part of a larger group, the likelihood you have a sound budgeting process that is sophisticated. But for those in smaller offices, not so much.
Paul is a great guest because he has been worked in many different healthcare setting. This experience has given him a unique perspective that I find interesting. And it so happens, he’s worked a lot on budgeting for both large and small practice.
...
Source: Pediatric Inc - March 13, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Pediatric Practice Management VideoCast Reporting Revenue The Business of Medicine Source Type: blogs
Updated: Illinois Attestation for Medicaid Payment Increase? We Are a Go
Earlier this week, I posted that the State health service of Illinois had not published how doctors could complete the attestation required to qualify for the medicaid payment increase.
Well, the next day I received an email that read:
Dear Illinois Health Connect Providers, The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services has posted a new Provider Notice to the Physicians Provider Notices page. You may also view the Physicians Provider Notices page from the link below. http://www.hfs.illinois.gov/physicians/
Regards, Illinois Health Connect Provider Services Department
The attachment included in the email can be...
Source: Pediatric Inc - March 6, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Illinois Attestation for Medicaid Payment Increase? Not Yet
As some of you know, The Affordable Care Act includes a historic investment to expand access to Medicaid for children. As of January 1, Medicaid payment rates are raised to at least Medicare rates for primary care and immunization services.
While this increase is part of existing federal law, eligible pediatricians must sign up to receive it: States may have their own reasonable deadlines for pediatricians to sign up (“self-attest”) for the increase, and many of these deadlines are happening within the next month.
This is awesome, except, the State of Illinois has yet to publish how IL doctors ought to go abou...
Source: Pediatric Inc - March 4, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Uncategorized Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services HFS Illinois Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Source Type: blogs
How To Start A Credit Card Program On File In Your Medical Practice
Image: ManageMyPractice.com
My friends over at the ManageMyPractice.com blog are putting together another webinar that I think you all should attend.
Mary Pat writes:
We had such a great response to our Credit Card on File Webinars that we are running another session.
If you are still curious about the credit card program on file that I go on and on about, but don’t know how to make it work, how to store credit cards safely or how to tell patients about this new policy, then you should sign up for this seminar.
I attended this webinar, and even for somebody like me that has been doing the credit card on file think si...
Source: Pediatric Inc - March 2, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Collections Policies Practice Management Revenue The Business of Medicine Credit card Financial Services ManageMyPractice.com Mary Pat Whaley Money Management Source Type: blogs
#5: Company or Practice Culture [Practice Management VideoCast]
Chip and I finally got our act together and recorded another video cast. This time, we talk about company culture.
There is so much to say about company culture. Chip and I only focused on few items of course.
I mostly talked about what are some of the efforts I’ve been employing in an effort to not only strengthen our company culture, but also grow it.
I share some of the tools I used un order to accomplish this.
Chip shares some of the implications of having a less than stellar company culture. He also talks about how company culture comes from the top of the organization.
What does he mean by coming from the top? ...
Source: Pediatric Inc - February 27, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Practice Management Business Employment iTunes Organizational culture Patrick Lencioni Podcast Tony Hsieh Zappos Source Type: blogs
How to Deliver Exceptional Service In a Medical Office
I wrote a piece for FiercePracticeManagement last week that I wanted to share with you all.
The piece talks about an experience I had while I was on vacation. I was trying to reschedule an appointment I had the next day with my doctor. The experience turned into a little ordeal that frustrated the heck out of me.
One part I didn’t mention in the piece due to word limit constraints is that during all this rescheduling fiasco, I was out of the country. Thus, I was using very expensive international pre-paid minutes while I was trying to connect with the doctors’ offices ( I had to deal with two offices). Even ...
Source: Pediatric Inc - February 23, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Customer Experience Employee Leadership Lessons Practice Improvement appointments bend rules empowerment exceptional service medical practice Patients phones rescheduling Source Type: blogs
Keeping Credit Cards On File Is The Only Option
If you’ve read this blog long enough, and you’ve heard me speak at conferences, you know I’m a huge proponent of practices implementing a credit card on file policy.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m referring to the practice of asking patients to leave a credit card on file (with the practice) to cover balances that the health insurance companies deem patient responsibility.
Much like a car rental company or a hotel requires a credit card on file for incidental.
Our practice has been doing this since 2009 and we’ve never looked back. It has been one of the best decisio...
Source: Pediatric Inc - February 6, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Collections Policies Revenue The Business of Medicine Credit card Financial Services front desk Front Desk Collections Insurance Merchant Services Patient Source Type: blogs
Has Your Medical Practice Lost Its Empathy? Here Is How To Regain It
Empathy, of course, is an important part of what we do. Right? I mean, how else could we restore health, help children reach their full potential and cure them if it is not with some sort of empathy?
In my last post, I talked about how empathy was part of our practice’s core values but that from time to time, we forget to have it.
We start out with it, but we either get comfortable, annoyed, caught up in the day-to-day that we tend to forget why we do what we do in the first. place.
So how do we regain the empathy we once had?
Joanna, my better half, wanted to re-ignite our empathy at our practice. But she didn’...
Source: Pediatric Inc - January 30, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Customer Service Anxiety children Empathy Family feelings Health Health Care kids medical private practice Parent Pediatrics Practice Management Source Type: blogs
Want to Learn How to Implement a Credit Card Program in Your Medical Office? Here’s How
One of the best decisions our practice has ever made, has been requiring parents to leave a credit card on file. We’ve done this since 2009 and it has really worked well for us.
The most obvious advantage is that this policy reduces your practice’s account receivables.
I also like the policy because it shifts the risk of not getting paid to another party, namely the credit card company – which is a far better entity to handle financial risk than a medical practice.
The list of advantages of implementing a program like this is quite long. Yet many medical offices are still reluctant to implement this policy.
I u...
Source: Pediatric Inc - January 26, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Collections Money Savings Revenue Technology The Business of Medicine Business and Economy Credit card Debit card Deductible Financial Services medical practice Merchant Services Source Type: blogs
Want To Wow Patients? Here is How To Do It
One of our core values in our practice, is empathy. It is so important to us, that we include it in our practice charter. Here is a little summary of our Empathy and Compassion section of our charter.
Central to our core values is treating our patients with compassion and respect. Understanding how our patients may be feeling and being sympathetic about that is essential to how we provide care. We are committed to maintaining a deep awareness for our patients and each family’s needs. And we embrace the fact that having compassion for our patients and their families is a cornerstone of what pediatricians do.
Here is the...
Source: Pediatric Inc - January 23, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Customer Experience Lessons Note to Self The Business of Medicine Compassion Empathy Patient Source Type: blogs
#4: Front Desk Benchmarking [Practice Management VideoCast]
Chip and I recorded our 4th episode of our Pediatric Practice Management VideoCast. In this episode, Chip and I talk about benchmarking, specifically front desk benchmarking.
I have a little hard time with benchmarking data. Mostly because I can’t pin point how I feel about them. In the video I explain my feelings, so you’ll have to watch to learn the details.
I also share how I go about benchmarking in our practice. Although I’ve never benchmarked copayment collections and other front desk task, I give an example that can also work well for front desk collections.
As usual, Chip had some awesome insight....
Source: Pediatric Inc - January 16, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Billing Collections Employee Pediatric Practice Management VideoCast Reporting Revenue balances Benchmarking copayments front desk Receptionist Source Type: blogs
How To Best Market Your Medical Practice, Guaranteed
A while back, I had the chance to fly JetBlue for the first time. I was excited to fly JetBlue because I had heard so many cool things about the airline. “Ah, you are going to love their DIRECTV feature and their leather chairs,” people said. Others mentioned how cool JetBlue’s JFK terminal looked. Needless to say, I was looking forward to it.
As I was finally boarding the plane, I realized that the overhead compartment was too small for my carry-on bag, and I’d probably have to check the bag right there on the Jetway.
When I finally met up with the flight attendant at the front of the plane, I saw he was...
Source: Pediatric Inc - January 11, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Customer Experience Marketing JetBlue JetBlue Airways Marketing and Advertising patient experience Remarkable Care Source Type: blogs
Episode 3: What To Look For When Selecting A Medical Billing Company
We recorded another video… I think we are actually getting better at this.
For this video, Chip and I talk about Billing Companies. Chip shared seven tips that ought to be on everybody’s mind if they are considering going with a medical billing company.
I shared with Chip our experience billing services, in-house billing and what circumstances have led us to have the setup we currently have; which I describe as a hybrid model.
We also discussed our thoughts on when it is appropriate to use a billing company, what to look for in a contract and how the practice should set up their front desk to maximize collect...
Source: Pediatric Inc - January 3, 2013 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Brandon Tags: Pediatric Practice Management VideoCast The Business of Medicine Source Type: blogs
